The Steel Guitar Forum

I was just watching a commercial for a local car dealership that is giving away a vacation to Hawaii as a promotion. There is steel guitar playing behind the salesman's voice-over, and every 5 seconds (it seems) "Ziiiiinnng" there's that big octave gliss as if to really evoke the image of Hawaii. Again and again.

In a way it's good that Americans still associate the steel guitar with Hawaii. Even if 99.9% wouldn't know one if they saw one, they all seem to recognize that big gliss.

It's been a while since I've seen the Brady Bunch two part adventure to Hawaii, but I imagine each scene change was accompanied by a big octave gliss also. It seems to be firmly entrenched in the pop culture psyche.

I have a fairly good collection of Hawiian reissue/compilations that have been availble over the past several years; Cord, Harlequin Rounder,Yazoo etal., and believe I have a good grasp of the development of the Hawaiian steel guitar and it's more prominent players. I rarely hear that glissing everywhere. Ocasionally at the end of a song, but nowhere near the way it's caricatured in advertisments and elsewhere.

So it got me wondering how and why did the octave gliss become THE signature sound of Hawaiian steel guitar? So much so that it is all it takes to instantly conjure up "Hawaii"?

Don't knock it, that's the only thing I know how to play!

Is it a sixth chord?

I'm guessing it's a 6th. The only tuning I've ever used on lap steel is C6, and I can do the "Hawai'ian Gliss".

Don't forget the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes. That intro gliss is burned into the brains of every kid who ever watched those cartoons. Walt Disney was also way into Hawaiian music. Most of us heard these sounds endlessly as kids. The commercial world is just capitalizing on the sounds that we associate with youthful fun. Quick and easy Hawaii in a box.